As of July 1, 89 new Medicare accountable care organizations (PDF) started to serve Medicare beneficiaries in 40 states and Washington, D.C., the CMS announced Monday.
These new programs bring the total list of ACOs to 154, which includes 32 ACOs in the Pioneer ACO model from the CMS Innovation Center that were announced last December and six physician group practice transition demonstration organizations that began in January 2011.
Nearly half of the new ACOs are physician-led organizations. When will we hear about the next batch of ACOs?
Meanwhile, the CMS announced that starting this year, applications for ACOs will be accepted annually. The application period is Aug. 1 through Sept. 6, 2012 for organizations that want to participate in the Medicare shared savings program starting in January 2013.
My prior ACO update is here.
(In the comments, you are welcome to debate, with evidence, the virtues and/or futility of ACOs. Note that I’ve expressed no opinion about them in this post, which is not an invitation to assume what I think. More on that in due course.)
